White wine vs. red wine

The NewScientist magazine has recently announced good news
for white wine lovers. The story came from Research Center at
the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, US where a
study was done.

Red wine has always been known for reducing the risk of heart
attack by by lowering cholesterol level. This happens because of
resveratrol, which is contained in grape skin.

Unlike red, white wine is made from the pulp of the grape, not
the skin, and, therefore, could not contain resveratrol. However, it
does contain tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol. According to the study,
although they are not identical, all three chemicals have enough
similarities that they could activate some of the same cellular
reactions.

The research found that "each of the wines and their components
increased the enzymatic activities of the mitochondrial complex
and citrate synthase". This means that the wines and the phenols
each had an effect on the cellular enzymes that the researchers
had set out to monitor.

In general, the results based on this study suggest that white wine
can provide the same level of cardioprotection as red wine if
contains enough tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol.

Dipak Das, a molecular biologist from the University of Connecticut
School of Medicine said: "We can safely say that one to two glasses of
white wine per day works exactly like red wine."


(image taken from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jedi58/1075336172/)